Catholic schools to be affected by full day strike action

THOUSANDS of students will have their schooling disrupted next Thursday as Catholic school union members commence a full day of strike action.

All of the Catholic Schools on the Sunshine Coast will be affected.

Brisbane Catholic Education spokesman John Phelan said each school would adopt its own strategy on how it would handle the strike action.

"Some schools will be more impacted than others depending on the number of staff involved," Mr Phelan said.

"Every school will contact parents as to what the arrangements for the day are."

Mr Phelan said less than half of Brisbane Catholic Education employees were union members and only union members were taking part in the strike action.

Independent Education Union of Australia, Queensland and Northern Territory Branchy Secretary Terry Burke said more than 8500 union members across 242 school sites were taking part.

The action - the eighth since negotiations over work conditions started 10 months ago - was to address concerns regarding "increasing workloads and inequitable wages".

Mr Burke said members had voted to escalate the action after "continued indifference from Queensland Catholic school employers on critical matters affecting the quality of education in their schools".

The key claims are Queensland Catholic teachers earn significantly less, up to $7000, than their New South Wales counterparts.

Further, teacher workloads had increased with no increase in preparation time and there has been a call for support staff to also be entitled to four weeks annual leave.

Mr Phelan said Brisbane Catholic Education had offered a 2.5% pay increase since July 1 and Catholic staff salaries were generally slightly higher than Queensland state school salaries.

"Our position is we keep pay equality with the Queensland state system. If anything, we would keep our staff slightly ahead of the state system," he said.

Support staff annual salary was also determined on a 40 week pay cycle and allowing a further four weeks annual leave "wouldn't be fair to the full-time staff".

IEUA-QNT President Andrew Elphinstone said taking full day strike action was not something union members did lightly.

"It is a last resort, but for our members the issues yet to be addressed by our employers - issues which impact the foundation of the quality of education we provide to our students in our schools - are just too important," Mr Elphinstone said.

Eleven mass member rallies will be held across Queensland during the strike action, including a gathering at the Sands Tavern in Maroochydore.

Alongside the stop work action, employees in Catholic schools across the state have been undertaking other forms of industrial action.

This included bans on email replies (except for emails which deal with a genuine health or safety matter for employees or students or child protection matters); bans on staff meetings and bans on doing duties other than classroom planning and marking where allocated.

Are you going to be affected by the strike action? Please contact kathy.sundstrom@scnews.com.au to share your story